Thursday, 7 September - Flagstaff to Gallup, New Mexico!

Brekky at the Springhill Suites was fabulous – great coffee and waffles!  Ate whilst watching the hurricane updates for Florida.  Not sure what to do there.  Florida has urged residents to evacuate.

We started our trip towards Gallup, NM.  David dearly wanted to visit the Zuni Pueblo for a look at their jewellery and pottery art.  The trip took nearly 3 hrs with the odd stop here and there.  We entered Zuni land.

We knew there wouldn’t be much in the way of cultural exhibits like we’ve seen at Taos or Acoma.  We found a shop which was advertising the items we were looking for, so we went in.  We spent about an hour there, talking to the assistant and checking everything out.  So much to look at!!!  Decided on a pot covered in lizards and David also bought a carving of an eagle and a fish carved out of antler.

Left Zuni and headed in to Gallup.  We were fairly tired, long day in the sun! 

Wednesday, 6th September - Phoenix to Flagstaff, Arizona

Sadness prevails as we have to pack up and hit the road again.  Woop started work early.  We shouted ourselves brekky at Cracker Barrel.  Bought fuel for 2.39/US gallon.  On the I-17 headed for Sedona, AZ.  Rang Lesley – we’re all anxiously watching the fate of the second hurricane to hit the US since we’ve arrived, and we’ve been here less than a week.  Unfortunately, the computer modelling is showing it as a cat 4 headed right along the Florida coastline, through Orlando and Daytona.  So we are wondering what we’ll do with out plane flight planned for Orlando next Tuesday…..

Our travels took us into Flagstaff via Sedona.  I just love, love, love Sedona.  We encountered a few ‘idiots’ on the road today, one decided to move into our lane whilst we were already there – just as well David knows how to use ABS and keep the car on the road.  That frightened the heck out of both of us.  In all the years we’ve been coming here, that’s the first time it’s happened so we calmed down eventually.  The second incident (less than 10 minutes later) involved us driving along a single carriage-way and rounded a corner to see a vehicle overtaking and in our lane!  The brakes got a workout there too.  After that, David insisted that I activate the camera on the Navman.

We had a fairly quick trip through Sedona, stopping at a Ranger station to get some great panoramic photos (one above) and souvenirs before into the main shopping district.  We ate lunch at our favourite Mexican cantina, ‘Javelina’s’…. before quick shopping and an experience at the vortex nearest the Sedona airport!

Drove into Flagstaff for the evening.  We were still so full from Javelina’s that we decided to just collapse in our hotel room.  Stopped to fill up the gas tank at the Chevron, $2.45 per gallon but because we pre-paid with cash there was a 5c per gallon discount!